While Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York City was well-known as
a defender and friend of the Jewish people, he was apparently unaware
that his mother was born Jewish, the daughter of a rabbi.

The saga, reflecting the kinds of rifts, new starts and reinventions
that mark many American families, emerged in recent weeks, first in
the April 30 issue of Catholic New York in a first-person essay by
Mrs. Ward-Donegan, who had been searching for information about her
forebears. The revelation set off a storm of genealogical research by
the religious press, including Jewish Week, which called upon
*** Renee Stern Steinig *** , an expert in Jewish genealogy, to
connect some dots.

http://tinyurl.com/qfht7mu original URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/nyregion/cardinal-john-joseph-oconnor-jewish-mother-genealogy.html

Thanks to Chuck Weinstein - Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island via
JGSLI Facebook page

Charter GerSIG member Renee Steinig is a past president of the JGSLI and
helped organize NYC IAJGS Conferences in 2006, 1999 and earlier.
She does in-depth genealogy research professionally and as a volunteer.

John Paul Lowens, Suburban NYC